Let Us Live!

Red Army soldiers have boots of thick leather, or of greenish-yellow felt, known as Valenkis. Last winter those boots saved them from the fate of thousands of German soldiers who froze to death or were crippled by the cold. This winter Russian boots will walk on the faces of thousands of dead Germans.

In Moscow and in the village precincts, Russian civilians do not have boots. During autumn cold snaps, girls in Moscow still wore summer sandals. Scarcely any civilians have rubbers or overshoes. Millions wear homemade quilted shoes.

Russia has learned the true price of total war. This winter Russian civilians will pay, not only in misery, but in death, for the boots of their soldiers, and for tanks and rifles and planes. Some of the hard facts of wartime living in Russia:

Food. Probably 90% of the food consumed in the U.S.S.R. is now rationed. What little is left over from collectivized-farm quotas brings fantastic prices. Eggs, spread like jewels on the counters of Moscow's crowded Central Market, sell at more than $3 each. Milk has sold at $5.50 a cupful. A peck of potatoes costs $10.

Workers in heavy war industries receive ration cards for 1 Ib. 9 oz. of bread daily; monthly allotments of if 1 3/4b. of butter; 4 Ib. 7 oz. of meal; 1 Ib. 2 oz. of sugar; 4 Ib. 14 oz. of meat; 2 Ib. 3 oz. of fish; 14 oz. of salt; 1 oz. of tea. Those doing less heavy work, children and dependents get roughly two-thirds as much. But ration cards cannot provide food when there is none. Doctors estimate that Russians have lost an average of 15 pounds each during the past year. Although bread lines are never mentioned in the press or photographed, oldsters with chattering teeth form long queues in the city streets. By spring many will have died.*

Consumer Goods. Most retail shops have closed. Those still functioning, like Moscow's five-story Mostorg department store, have little more than rows of empty counters. Housewives can rarely get pots & pans, chinaware, hairpins, combs, brushes, soap. Men cannot buy razor blades, pens or watches.

Probably not one out of 100 civilians has been able to purchase any new clothing during the year. As they have in the past, Russians are putting newspapers under their worn coats in the daytime and between their blankets at night.

Shelter. City rents in Russia do not vary according to neighborhood but according to monthly income. In Moscow a person in the middle-income bracket pays 2% rubles per square meter of floor space, whether on eight-laned Gorki street or in a converted church, and no one is allowed to occupy over 9 square meters (96 sq. ft.). Since apartments average around 60 square meters of space, single persons and small families have to share apartments with others.

In Moscow, where the population has jumped from one million in 1920 to over four million today, housing conditions are further complicated by the abrupt wartime cessations of badly needed new residential buildings, by poor architectural planning and bad workmanship on some apartments, and by lack of materials to repair bomb-damaged windows and roofs.

Heat. Since most of Russia's remaining coal and oil supplies are needed for industry and the Army, new sources of fuel had to be found for homes, schools and offices. Battalions of women--waitresses, ballerinas, hairdressers--were recruited to work in the forests. They were given two weeks' training in handling axes and saws. In August and September loads of wood began arriving in the cities. It was dumped in huge piles at street intersections. The only transport supplied by the Government was a few tiny handcarts for each neighborhood (home deliveries of laundry, etc., have long been banned). It was up to the civilians, after presenting their fuel-ration cards, to get their meager supplies home. Hauling was done by old women and school children, the only "manpower" available.

Health. Medical services now are reserved primarily for the Army and war workers. Influenza and colds are almost as common as bedbugs and body lice.

Despite privations, most adults look surprisingly healthy. Those suffering the most are the aged. Children show the effect of the lack of fresh vegetables and milk. Even so, streets are full of pregnant women and mothers with babies in their arms. Because of the food shortage, nearly all women breast-feed their babies for a year.

Morale. Twice in the past 20 years (early 1920s, early 1930s) the Russian people have suffered intense privation. In the winter of 1932-33 millions starved in a famine augmented by the Government's policy of exporting foodstuffs in exchange for the machinery and equipment now furnishing the Red Army with the materiel of war. At these times of crisis Russian morale did not break. The people went on working and producing.

For centuries black bread and cabbage have been the staples of the Russians' diet. They have developed immunity to diseases that would wipe out Western peoples under similar circumstances.

The Russians have suffered before, and have survived. They are suffering now, but their will to survive is today stronger than ever before. Last week eloquent Ilya Ehrenbourg, senior Russian war correspondent,* wrote:

"The post-war morning will be beautiful. Russia, her head raised high, strong but peaceful, proud but not haughty, the first to beat the Germans, will free her shoulder from the rifle and say: 'Now let us live!' "

*Unofficial but reliable Russian sources now admit the death by starvation and disease of 1,000,000 to 1,500,000 in the besieged Leningrad area last winter.

*Three other major correspondents have been killed in action in the past year: Alexander Afinogenov (author of Distant Point), Eugene Petrov (coauthor of The Little Golden Calf) and Alexander Polyakov (author of Russians Don't Surrender).

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